After the waiting, Wood's time has finally come with Angels

One of the top-rated prospects in baseball over the past few seasons, Brandon Wood will finally get his opportunity as a full-time big-leaguer with the Angels this season. FILE PHOTO

TEMPE, Ariz. - The waiting was the hardest part – maybe less so for Brandon Wood than for the fans who saw him as the next great thing for so long they began to question it.

But if Wood ever got too anxious about his annual standing as prospect-in-waiting or uncomfortable with holding the franchise record for home runs at Triple-A Salt Lake (no player wants to stay long enough to hold minor-league records), he was able to keep it in perspective.

If that perspective had ever slipped, last year slapped it back in place. Even as he spent his third consecutive summer at the base of the Wasatch Mountains (with occasional visits to Anaheim), Wood could never quite work up any serious 'Woe is me' rants. All he had to do was think about his good friends Nick Adenhart and Henry Pearson.

"It hits you pretty hard. You're 25 and lose two good buddies," said Wood who counted two friends among the victims of last April 9's fatal car accident. "I went back to Triple-A (after spring training) and, of course, there's some disappointment in not making the (major-league) team – keeping in mind that there wasn't any room. The last week of spring training, I'm looking around the (locker) room and going, '1, 2, 3 ... I got to 25 and I'm like, 26 ... this doesn't work.'

"It's still tough to swallow going back to Triple-A. Then losing Nick and Henry – that was a tough April. But it also put it in perspective. I'm sitting here playing a game and Nick lost his life. My buddy, Henry, died at a young age. I'm playing Triple-A baseball, knowing that my opportunity was going to come. When things got slow or tough in Triple-A, I just thought of my buddies and – if I was going to pick two roads, I didn't really have a whole lot to complain about. It definitely put it in perspective."

FIGGINS DEPARTURE

Wood had to wait through three springs of hearing from Angels' decision-makers that his time would come before it finally did. The free agent departure of Chone Figgins this past winter has opened the door to the big leagues for Wood. When the Angels take the field for Opening Night on Monday, Wood will be there for the first time, a spot in the Angels' lineup at least partially reserved for him.

"I think any time a young player is trying to break into what is a championship-caliber lineup, a team with expectations of being a contender – you have to wait for that opportunity to emerge," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "Chone Figgins had to when he came up. It was a few years before he found a position. Kendry Morales certainly had to. Howie Kendrick, Joe Saunders -- Jered Weaver had to. Jered Weaver was, what, 5-0, 6-0 and got sent down to the minors (in 2006).

"Sometimes it takes a little longer to get that opportunity when you're trying to break into a team that's been achieving. I think Brandon's an example of that."

That opportunity would have come a lot sooner had things played out differently and Wood found himself in the hands of, say, the Kansas City Royals or Pittsburgh Pirates. Those teams have none of the "expectations of being a contender" that held Wood back with the Angels.

"The reality is I might have had two, three years in (the big leagues) if I was with a different club," Wood said. "But I said this back in Double-A when guys were getting their September callups and I wasn't even close to sniffing a September callup yet. I said to Peach (minor-league manager Rob Picciolo), 'I wouldn't trade my position for their position any day.'

"I've been on teams in the minor leagues where I was playing well but every day we're giving up 10, 12 runs and we're losing. At the end of the day, no matter how well you're playing, it's not fun in the clubhouse when you're losing. Being in this clubhouse, you have a chance to win every day and a chance to go to the playoffs. Cutting down my big-league time by two years and giving me a chance to win a World Series at a young age? I don't think you could trade that for the world. ... I don't think it would be long if you were with another club where it's obvious you're 25 games back and you've got a few thousand people in the stands, it could feel like a Triple-A game in a heartbeat."

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Wood also realizes another benefit of that tradeoff. He has exchanged the crushing pressure of being hailed as a franchise savior for one of those lower-rung teams for a cushy seat at the bottom of the Angels' lineup. He'll spend this season as the No. 8 or 9 hitter with expectations to add what he can to the team's offense – not carry it.

"When you're a young prospect and you come up at age 21 with the Royals, you're supposed to put up George Brett numbers your first year," Wood said. "That can be a lot of pressure. Here – it might take a little longer to get here but I might be hitting in the 8 hole with Torii Hunter, Kendry Morales, Hideki Matsui, Juan Rivera. You know you're going to be counting on those guys. Those guys have been here for years doing it.

'My job is ... just play good defense and solid baseball. Hopefully, my time will come when I can be that guy."

Waiting for his time to come might have been difficult. But Scioscia said "there's no doubt he's better prepared now," having assimilated to a new position and absorbed the lessons of over 1,200 Triple-A at bats (plus 224 scattered big-league at-bats).

"Any time you keep playing ball and having success at a level, it builds your confidence to move on to the next level," Scioscia said. "There has been growth in a lot of areas from Brandon. ... He definitely looks like a player with more of a presence and more confidence than he did any time he's been up in the last couple years."

While Scioscia insists the third-base job has not been handed to Wood – "I don't think that would be the situation that would be best for Brandon right now" – Wood says he has a sense of relaxation about his situation this spring.

"In the other years, I would come up (to the majors) and try to hit three home runs in a game," he said. "The reality was, I was just in there to give someone a day off. I didn't see that. I saw it as an opportunity. I didn't see it as just helping the team by giving somebody some rest and I put too much pressure on myself.

"That pressure I put on myself is gone. Now it's just back to playing baseball."

Related Links

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.